As trite as this may sound, technology & social media is reducing us to the single common denominator.  And I say this inspite of technology having done in a few years what civilization has been attempting to do since time immemorial.

Power to the common man. And now with ‘#MeToo’, it is finally power to the common woman.

Past few days have been socially hectic – with meeting friends, clients and peers in the industry.

One conversation that keeps coming up is how ‘#MeToo’ is changing the way we approach work. Once a carefree zone of the boys club – some men have even admitted to being wary of hiring women at work. Some are reflecting on the times gone by and wondering if they stepped on any toes (perhaps unwittingly). Some have wowed to be more watchful of their words and actions now.

I am reminded of a research that happened a few years ago. A poster of two sharp eyes – reduced the number of wasteful printouts significantly. A pair of watchful eyes in another study reduced littering by 50%.

‘#MeToo’ is the next watchful eye, thanks to social media. It has taken a year for it to come to India, but someone somewhere felt the need to flag it out. There will be some innocents being hung, some harassers going scot free but these ‘pair of eyes’ will definitely make us more self -aware against bullying and harassing at workplace. There is no bigger shame than being pointed out in public. A couple of friends in fact talked about how the language of communication has changed significantly since ‘#MeToo’ has hit India.

This might be the chance that many of us unknowingly needed – to overcome from within, to look at oneself straight in the eye in the mirror and say “not me”

We recently helped an organization resolve a sexual harassment issue. ‘#MeToo’ had not taken traction when we were helping this client. Although the man was at fault clearly based on the independent inquiry that was conducted by us – it was the woman who left the job – unable to bear the constant talk behind her back. Perhaps ‘#MeToo’ would have helped her.